In the late nineteenth century, a New York physician suffered a massive electrical shock, woke up, and declared the entire universe existed inside a hollow shell. Cyrus Teed abandoned standard medicine to proclaim himself a messiah named Koresh.
He convinced hundreds of followers that humans lived on the inner surface of the Earth, the sun was a giant battery, and he was chosen to build a new society. His radical pursuit drove him from upstate New York to the uncharted swamps of Florida, ending in a violent brawl and a desperate two-day vigil over his decaying body.
A Shocking Divine Revelation
Teed was born in 1839 and worked as a doctor dabbling in alchemy. In the autumn of 1869, an experiment involving dangerously high electricity went wrong. He passed out and experienced a vision of a woman holding a caduceus, who told him he was the chosen redeemer of humanity. Awakening with renewed fervor, he changed his name to Koresh. His wife, Delia, and son, Douglas, refused to adopt his new dogmatic lifestyle and moved away.
The Cellular Cosmogony Concept
Teed rejected the accepted heliocentric model. He preached Koreshanity, asserting the Earth was a hollow sphere and humanity lived on the inside. In this cosmology, the stars were merely refractions of light and the sun operated as a massive, battery-powered mechanism. His teachings also mandated celibacy, reincarnation, and communal living. He gathered devoted followers and established communes in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Building a Floridian Utopia
In 1894, the group relocated to Estero, Florida, aiming to construct a New Jerusalem. Between 1903 and 1908, the Koreshan Unity reached its peak with over 250 residents. They transformed the landscape, building a bakery, a general store, a concrete works, and a power plant.
They established the World College of Life and printed their own newspaper, The Flaming Sword. The commune even incorporated 110 square miles of land. During this time, Teed’s estranged son, Douglas, visited the commune and painted 27 works for their art hall. The reunion soured when Douglas sued the group for unpaid commissions in 1907.
A Fatal Brawl and Broken Promises
The commune’s trajectory changed in October 1906. While at a grocery store in Fort Myers, Teed attempted to break up a fight involving his followers. A local marshal severely beat him, inflicting injuries that plagued Teed for the rest of his life. He died on December 22, 1908.
Teed had prophesied his own physical resurrection, prompting his faithful followers to keep a constant vigil over his corpse. After two days, the body began to visibly decay. A county health officer intervened and ordered the immediate burial of the corpse. The movement quickly declined, and the remaining property was eventually handed over to the state.